Ubuntu
gnome-settings-daemon package

  1. Bug #871133
  2. Comment #28

Comment 28 for bug 871133

Revision history for this message
Bruno Dantas (bdantas) wrote : Re: Ubuntu Oneric Volume Step Can Not be Changed

I have an HP laptop and, indeed, the volume steps are so large that after I've decreased the volume just 3 or 4 clicks from maximum, I can no longer hear anything. The weird thing is that even though I can't hear anything and I can see that the Master volume in alsamixer is zero, the volume notification bar is close to maximum. Ugly.

It would be nice if volume_step were availalbe in gconf or mate-conf. In the meantime, I found an elegant workaround...

I was looking for a solution where I'd have BOTH reasonable volume steps AND the nice volume notification bar. I tried many things and went around in circles. This is the only solution that gave me both:

1. In a terminal, type alsamixer then increase Master volume to maximum

2. Change the volume button behavior to control PCM volume rather than Master by editing the /etc/pulse/default.pa and changing this line:
# load-module module-alsa-sink
to this:
load-module module-alsa-sink control=PCM

3. restart

Now the volume buttons control PCM. The steps are nice and the volume bar shows up normally.